8/4/15 12:46 PM

quote:

---

the field is over 30mph

---

quote:

---

launch my sprint to accelerate from 30+ to 40+ mph

---

quote:

---

I felt slower just reading that....

---

8/5/15 5:33 AM

My go-to road gearing for the past few years has been a compact crank (50/34) with a 13-26 10-speed cassette. The low gear gets me up everything around here (southern NH), though not without considerable effort in some cases. I have 13-29 sitting on the shelf for "special rides", but haven't used it yet. The high gear is good to ~35mph downhill and I figure that if I'm going faster than that, I'm better off coasting (I don't race, so pedaling downhill is optional).

My 'cross/gravel/general off-road bike is a bit of an odd beast, gearing-wise. The crank is a 39/24, formerly a triple with the outer ring replaced with a bash guard. My standard off-road cassette is an 11-25. Our vacation this year will include both road and dirt riding, so I'll be setting up a light road wheel set with an 11-21 cassette cobbled together from cassettes I have on-hand. The high end gear is on the low side (96 inches), but I can live with it. The low end (31" road / 26" dirt) is sufficient for anything I'll ever encounter and is probably overkill for most rides.

One question I have for the group is who is making light road cranks that handle small chainrings? I'd like to have a somewhat larger big ring (42, 44) on the 'cross bike for most riding, with the option of going smaller when necessary. I definitely want the ability to go with a tiny inner ring if I need it. It's easy to find MTB cranks that fit the bill, but my frame has a 130mm rear end, so they're not ideal for it.

8/5/15 5:50 AM

I have a Velo Orange road crank that is 46/30 on my cross bike (I was thinking it was 44/28, but actually it's 46/30). Not sure how light it is, and it's basically a retro design like an old TA or Stronglight, which may or may not be to your taste.

I use it with a 12-32, and it works great.

8/5/15 6:26 AM

Middleburn cranks are light, and they make a couple of road cranks that can take a 94BCD spider to give you chainrings down to 30t. One model (RO1) fits conventional square taper BB, the other (RO2) uses 24mm axle a la Shimano etc.

And I've used their RS7 MTB cranks with correct chainline on a 130mm road frame by using a 103mm Phil Wood BB instead of the 113mm BB recommended for MTB use. With their Duo chainrings you can have chainring combinations such as 42-29 or 38-27.

p.s. There's also the Sugino OX series cranks, intended for road use, and which use 110BCD for the outer chainring and 74BCD for the inner, giving a large range of possible chainring sizes. I used one of those on the BH that I recently built up for my wife.

Last edited by Nick Payne on 8/5/15 5:13 PM; edited 1 time in total

8/5/15 9:29 AM

I was spying a FSA Comet 27/44 for Le Grenouille while collecting parts. For hilly off road use I'd like to try this in real life use. Maybe hilly on road use. ;)

I ended up using the Race Face 22/32/44 that was hanging on my wall. The bike may still see this if it ever get Di2.

8/5/15 10:02 AM

Shimano's Tiagra FC4603 triple has 50/39/30 chainrings on a 130 mm bolt circle for the outer rings and a 92 mm BCD as part of to the middle ring for the granny so you can't go below 30T.

Shimano's previous 105 FC-5703 crank was a 130/74 BCD triple so you had a lot of room to move with the granny. It's no longer in production so you have to find it NOS.

8/5/15 10:14 AM

130/74 BCD triple:

6603 and R5## non groupo triples as well. But you are exceeding the max.
Just to mention, the 7703 has the largest max of 41 teeth, although a 30thooth granny is the smallest, the 41 give some cassette options most other triples do not handle well when you got beyond max on what I have fudged beyond spec.

Elaine's 5703 Madone has a 26T bottom i put on. But I trimmed out the big ring making it a double. It won't shift right as a triple with the 26T and she never uses the 52/3 whatever it is [I forget]. And this simplified the FD trimming quite a lot.

The 6703 was by far the best shifting road triple I have ever used. 30/39/52 and a 11-30 is in spec. 27GI in the lowest gear FWIW.